JERRY’S CHECKLIST FOR SUCCESS Want to reach the 90-year mark? Portman’s Music Superstore’s Jerry Portman says these three factors are key. “The business has changed just like music has changed.” Always be adjusting. Or as Jerry put it, “Hire people who are genuine experts in each store department.” Hire the right people.
The family business has been serving — and growing — local school music pro- grams since its start. Today, it services some 200 schools.
in business for four generations now, and there are families that have been musical across all of those generations, because they’ve received good treatment from Portman’s and knew where to go for the right advice. That’s something we’re very proud of.” 100 YEARS IN THE MAKING With the century mark on the horizon, Jerry said while he and his wife have no intention of leaving the business anytime soon, they are looking ahead to the next generation of Portman’s owners. “My wife and I wanted to retire about 15 years ago, but our doctor told us that a lot of his patients who retired without staying busy didn’t fare well, and that we ought to stay active in some way, so we kept going for that reason,” Jerry explained. “But over the last five years specifically, we’ve been thinking seriously about the transition. We have two kids, and both have gone to college and built their own careers. Some long-time employees have moved on from the business over time, too, so we’ve looked closely at our key managers and set things up so the busi- ness can keep running well beyond my wife and me being here and involved in
the day-to-day.” Jerry said he never wanted to open more stores just for the sake of it, or expand into other states — but the right person could come in and use the same values he’s built the business on to do just that. “We’ve thought about this enough that if the right person came along, they could take over fairly easily, since our own roles are already effectively covered by other people,” he explained. “We’ve got a new, younger warehouse manager who’ll be here for many years. We have a new music academy director who runs the Savannah academy — our biggest — and also oversees the academies at our other stores. Our Augusta store manager, Mark Alexander, was a band director my brother used to call on, until my brother had to retire about 25 years ago after hurting his back. Mark now manages the Augusta store, oversees our road reps and handles buying demo instruments — a big part of the business. So, we have the right people in place — many of whom know the business inside and out. So, that’s really moving us toward more of an absentee-ownership model as we keep working on it. But, for now, we’re enjoying our 90th anniversary.” MI
Know your community.
“Relationship- building is really the foundation of our longevity.”
36 I MUSIC INC. I OCTOBER 2026
Powered by FlippingBook